I came home last night after work to a little zine by a guy in Massachusetts called Chris Piascik that I’d totally forgotten ordering… That’s my favorite type of package!

It’s a small graphic tribute to Marshall “Major” Taylor, who in his 1928 biography “describes his cardinal principles for success and accredits his achievements, both on and off the track, to these values:”

Don’t try to “gyp.” Don’t be a pie biter. Don’t keep late hours. Don’t use intoxicants. Don’t be a big bluffer. Don’t eat cheap candies. Don’t get a swelled head. Don’t use tobacco in any form. Don’t fail to live a clean life. Don’t forget to play the game fair. Don’t take in unfair advantage of an opponent. Don’t forget the practice of good sportsmanship. 8/13 ain’t bad, right?

There was a time in my life when I could have had a perfect score according to the good Major… last night was not one of those nights…

Regardless of the fact that most of us were victims off the Winne; Robbie, Killer, Ben, Lambert & The Champ and I headed out to Bluffer’s Park which is a nice little ride… about 50k round trip, which as I’m sure I’ve mentioned before is my ideal distance for these types of rides… Juuuuuuust long enough to feel it, short enough to still be fun. All I’ll say is that it’s a lot more fun on a geared, freehubbed road bike… The hill into the bluffs, on a fixed gear, is terrifying and on the way back up is impossible.

We all expected that during the ride things would warm up as the forecast was calling for a high of 8 or 9 degrees… What did we get instead? Light flurries… No big deal, really, but the crosswinds were nuts, the headwinds were worse and between my knickers and my really old and mostly mesh shoes I was really, really happy to get back and start to feel my toes again.

2 Comments

Andrew PMar 21, 2010 @ 10:15:44

Went on an 85km-er ride yesterday. In a group of 8 or so, I was one of two doing it fixed, getting dropped on every hill, allowing the rest of the group to take nice periodic rests to wait for me along the way.